According to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, FCPS has violated the sex-based, Title IX right to equivalent accommodations by letting students use gendered facilities according to the students’ gender identity. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for investigating claims of civil rights violations against school districts and universities. Under the leadership of the Trump administration, these investigations have focused on three recurring themes: anti-semitism, typically related to how a school has handled Israel-Palestine protests; race discrimination from affirmative action; and the inclusion of transgender students in gendered spaces, such as locker rooms and restrooms.
In a press release announcing FCPS’ violation, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said, “The Trump administration will not sacrifice the safety, dignity, and innocence of young women and girls at the altar of an anti-scientific illiberalism.”
I was surprised to hear that I, a young woman and girl, had been endangered by my many trips to the school bathroom. In my eleven years so far as an FCPS student, the greatest risk to my safety has been empty soap dispensers.
The DOE is unfortunately not offering to buy FCPS 4-ply toilet paper. Instead, they are threatening federal funds necessary to provide student lunches and maintain disability services. Responding to FCPS’ refusal to change their policies, the OCR announced that FCPS would be designated as a high-risk grantee and was working to start termination of federal funding.
In writing to FCPS justifying their conclusions, the OCR cited examples of sexual abuse and assault where gender and sex was disputed. Some of these cases occurred in local school districts. The OCR argues that these cases demonstrate safety harms incurred by transgender-inclusive bathroom policies. I disagree. Inclusive policies are not responsible for sex offenses, perpetrators are. Signs on bathroom doors won’t prevent sex offenders from invading private spaces.
Data doesn’t support that sex offenses are more common with transgender-inclusive policies, either.
“When comparing counties with and without these [transgender-inclusive] nondiscrimination laws, neither statewide nor countywide implementation of these nondiscrimination laws resulted in increased victimization rates perpetrated by strangers,” a study from the Williams Institute of UCLA found.
Denying people access to bathrooms is inequitable, but I find it especially cruel to deny transgender students in schools access as well. Students have enough challenges in their school day, and even without a policy explicitly barring them from the bathroom they would prefer, some students will avoid the bathroom in fear of harassment or bullying.
The Department of Education’s actions suggest that the government does not care about transgender students’ health and safety, despite being deserving of equal treatment, and legally required to receive such under the Virginia Human Rights Act.
FCPS has held fast in its support of transgender students, but the DOE is actively attempting to coerce the school district into revoking protections by threatening any funding it receives from the federal government. This affects more than just the transgender community. Federal funding supports food access in the county through the National Lunch program, helping reduce food insecurity. Thomas Jefferson High School is a magnet school and receives grant funding that will soon be cut, limiting its ability to provide advanced education. IDEA funds could be revoked as well, which are responsible for ensuring that schools can provide disabled students with good education without parents needing to pay for better care elsewhere.
The funding cuts and their intent—to end transgender-inclusion in FCPS—are wrong, and it is important that FCPS continue to refuse to change their policies. Title IX and other civil rights laws should not be abused to strip the rights of others, but that seems to be the Department’s intent.
